Friday, September 16, 2011

After two years on the run, best friends Rose and Lissa are caught and returned to St. Vladimir's Academy, a private high school for vampires and half-bloods. It's filled with intrigue, danger - and even romance. Enter the dark, fascinating world through a new series of 144-page full-color graphic novels. The entire first Vampire Academy novel has been adapted for book one by Leigh Dragoon and overseen by Richelle Mead, while the beautiful art of acclaimed British illustrator Emma Vieceli brings the story to life.

The Review

Now it's no secret that I'm an obsessed fan of Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series, and of course, I'm also a huge fan of graphic novels. I know I'm such a geek when it comes to those two things. So when I found out that yet another Richelle Mead book series was going to be made into a graphic novel form - for those that don't know her Dark Swan series was also recently adapted into graphic novels and they were just awesome - I was really, really excited to see our beloved characters drawn onto full-colour pages.

First off, before I talk about the plot, I want to talk about the artwork itself. For those worried about how their characters will turn out, not to worry though because while a couple of characters were a little different to my own interpretation of them in my head . . . it was nonetheless an awesome graphic novel for those desperate for more VA action. For the past year or so I've been a fan of Emma Vieceli's artwork and followed her more closely as soon as I heard she was to be the illustrator for Vampire Academy, and I'm so glad she was chosen to undertake such a difficult task - you know, since this YA series has a huge following and all. There's no doubt that this girl has talent and the character designs were just phenomenal. The details within themselves were exceptional, and while the scenaries were beautifully drawn, but what I loved most was the raw emotion displayed on the characters faces. Especially when it came to Rose's humour and Dimitri's ever-so-seriousness.

Moving onto the storyline. Look when it comes down to it, not every single scene in Vampire Academy will make it to the actual graphic novel. While many loved scenes were not in the book, but a lot of fans like myself will recognise the most important scenes that were featured - one including a favourite scene of mine, that being the Rose and Dimitri 'bandage' scene which a lot of you will know about. So in terms of the plot, I thought Leigh Dragoon - the person in charge of putting the entire story together - did an amazing job in grabbing the most essential scenes and laying them out clearly for readers to understand what was going on.

Really, my only complaints about the graphic novel was Rose herself (not to mention her chest size) and a couple of other supporting characters. They were not how I imagined them to be, but everyone has different versions inside their heads but I still loved their character designs no matter what. Rose facial expressions were well captured and so damn classic. And MASON! What surprised me the most was that when I read the first Vampire Academy book I thought Christian was supposed to hot, but in the graphic novel form I thought Mason was way hotter than Christian. So kudos to Emma for drawing a very hot Mason for the world to see! *hugs*

In the end if you're a fan of Vampire Academy than I have no doubt in my mind that you will want this for your own personal VA addictive collection. Beautifully depicted with great action sequences, intimidate details, and a whole lot of epic fun and adventure, this graphic novel shall not disappoint you and you will fall back in love with this series. All I can leave with you guys is - beware of the half-naked Dimitri. I swear, fangals might have a heart-attack after reading this book and seeing his 'naked' side. Just giving you a heads up is all . . .

I flicked through the entire book today (I knoooow, bad me, I should have READ it too, but I knew the story and just wanted to look at the pretty pictures :P), and thought the artwork was fantastic! Yes, Mason looked great! As did Christian <3 (Seriously dying to see how Adrian will turn out in Frostbite) Hahaha, yeah, that Rose/Dimka scene... *wiggles eyebrows* plenty of steamy! hehe. Great review, Erin!

Anna: If you love the VA books then this is just another book you'll have to add to your collection. But yeah, graphic novels aren't everyone's cup of tea but the graphics in this one are brilliant.

Brodie: Yes there are so many pretty pictures! hehe. I'm dying to see what Adrian will look like . . . kind of hoping they'll make him super hot. haha. But that Rose/Dimka scene. Whew that was a little much. haha. *wiggles eyebrows* Thanks for commenting!

I still haven't finished the VA series (I think I've only read up to the 3rd book) so I don't want to start the graphic novels just yet. But this one looks great! I usually love when they turn a series into a graphic novel (The Wicked Lovely series, being one, and the Faerie Path series being another) because I feel like it gives a whole other dimension to the characters that wasn't there before. It adds a visual to the words.